Canadian Natural Resources Limited reports monthly production of Synthetic Crude Oil (SCO) at Horizon Oil Sands as follows:

SCO Production (bbl/d) Q1 2010: 86,995 Q2 2010: 99,950 July 2010: 93,300(i) August 2010 forecast: 49,000-50,000 (i) rounded to the nearest hundred

The maintenance required to address localized pipe wall thinning limited to the amine unit, which required a plant wide shut down, was completed in mid August. While the plant was in shut down the Company was able to move forward and complete planned maintenance originally scheduled for late August and September which included furnace pigging cycles and screen changes in the Ore Preparation Plant (OPP).

The start up of the Horizon operation after this outage occurred on schedule, however operational start up difficulties were encountered in the OPP. As a result, full ramp up to design rates were delayed, as the operation was restricted to running on only one of two wet trains in the OPP for a significant period during August.

The second wet train was returned to operations in late August and the company targets production rates at design capacity for September 2010 and the remainder of 2010.

Tags: Canadian Natural Resources Ltd